HIGH FLYER: One of the 70 riders who competed in The Summit Mall Indoor Mountain Bike Challenge held at Batu Pahat, Johor negotiating an escalator which was converted into a ramp as part of the indoor race course within the five-storey shopping complex.
KUCHING: Sarawak’s Team Viking leading mountain bike downhill rider, Affendey Kadri finished a respectable tenth placing in the recent The Summit Mall Indoor Mountain Bike Challenge held at Batu Pahat, Johor.
Seventy riders from other states and Singapore competed with over 3,000 shoppers came to The Summit Shopping Mall to witness the two-day event which attracted professional teams namely Team THC and Team H2H from Singapore, Team ABS from Johor. This is the first time for Sarawak’s mountain bike team competing in the adrenaline pumping event which required the competitors to race against time through a specially constructed racing course and obstacles within the five-storey shopping mall.
“It was pretty exciting because the shopping mall was turned into an interesting racing course which include the escalators being converted into ramps and obstacles for us to cycle through with only steel barricades to prevent the shoppers from coming in too close,” said Affendey who managed to finish ahead of Tan Hong Chung – a SEA Games cyclist and current defending champion of Singapore’s indoor mountain bike challenge.
During the qualifying round, Affendey together with fellow team mate, Mohammad Tarmizi finished 16th and 11th placing respectively.
Tarmizi who clocked 1 minute 14 seconds failed to repeat a similar feat in the finals after he fell in the first corner but managed to pick himself up before finishing in 20th placing.
“It is all about speed and timing while we race against the clock and the large number of spectators is not a good sight to behold because they might just cross the barricade to interrupt your journey,” said Affendey who fell during the warm up while avoiding a shopper who breached the course route.
He said Team Viking will next compete in next round of the indoor mountain bike challenge to be held at A’Formosa Shopping Complex in Melaka as well as the upcoming the National BMX Championship to be held in Ayer Keroh also in Melaka.
He said on the local front, the team is also competing in the Sarawak’s leg of the National Cycling GP to be held here in September and this year’s Bintulu road race challenge to be held at Wisma BDA.
“We intend to send our young riders to the upcoming events locally with the aim to give them the exposure and experience,” said Affendey who is hoping for Sarawak to be host for an international indoor mountain bike challenge to be held next year.